Soupault vs Wintersmith
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted blogging platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Soupault | Wintersmith |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 64 · Good | 19 · At risk |
| Category | Blogging Platforms | Blogging Platforms |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | OCaml | CoffeeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 430 | ★ 3,478 |
| First released | 2019 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Jekyll, Hugo | WordPress, Jekyll |
What are Soupault and Wintersmith?
Soupault
Soupault is a static website generator and HTML processor that manipulates the page DOM directly rather than relying on a templating language. It can build new sites or post-process existing static sites.
- DOM-based processing
- Lua plugin support
- Single-binary tool
- Works on existing sites
Wintersmith
Wintersmith is a simple yet flexible static site generator built on Node.js that turns Markdown content into a static website or blog. Its plugin system allows custom content types and generators.
- Plugin-driven generators
- Markdown content
- Jade and Pug templates
- Static output
Soupault vs Wintersmith: key differences
Soupault is written in OCaml, while Wintersmith is built with CoffeeScript. Soupault is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Wintersmith. Wintersmith is the more established project (first released 2012), while Soupault arrived in 2019. Wintersmith has the considerably larger community, at 3,478 GitHub stars versus 430.
Why pick each one
Choose Soupault if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in OCaml
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Choose Wintersmith if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in CoffeeScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Soupault or Wintersmith better?
Neither is universally better. Wintersmith has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Soupault and Wintersmith free and open-source?
Yes. Soupault is licensed under MIT and Wintersmith under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Soupault and Wintersmith with Docker?
Soupault: check the project docs for container support. Wintersmith: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Soupault or Wintersmith?
Soupault has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Wintersmith. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.